H. Charles Grawemeyer, industrialist, entrepreneur, astute investor and philanthropist, created the lucrative Grawemeyer Awards at the University of Louisville in 1984. To a remarkable extent, he put his personal stamp on the awards, which surely are his shining legacy. They are devoted to the beauty of creativity and the power of great ideas to change the world.

Both faith-based and human rights organizations work to address global health issues, but divergent ideological approaches can create discord and ultimately undermine the efforts of both groups.

Susan R. Holman, 2016 Grawemeyer Award in Religion recipient, shares how a combined approach, incorporating religious views and traditions with dialogue about economic and social rights, can be useful in combating global health problems.

An interdisciplinary approach to global well-being

The Locust Effect

The absence of law enforcement in developing countries undermines the fight against global poverty.
Authors and 2016 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order recipients Gary Haugen and Victor Boutros outline the failure of criminal justice systems to address what they call the “plague of hidden, everyday violence” inflicted on the poor. They contend that all economic efforts to address deprivation are likely to fail in the absence of protection against crimes.

Infusing character with emotional nuance and depth

With the orchestra acting as a partner and not mere accompanist, the Grawemeyer-winning work presents a first-person narrative by Shakespeare’s Ophelia, using only the minimal vocabulary originally scripted for the character.

let me tell you, a song cycle for soprano and orchestra, earned Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen the 2016 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

The Long Shadow

Those born into poverty are unlikely to escape it—even if they have access to better opportunities through education.

Authors and 2016 Grawemeyer Award in Education winners Karl Alexander, the late Doris Entwisle and Linda Olson followed nearly 800 Baltimore-area urban youths from first grade through adulthood and found that socioeconomic status trumps education when it comes to life outcomes. Their research spans nearly three decades and challenges the idea that access to public education means equal opportunity.

Strength through Adversity

A scientist who discovered a brain mechanism that not only produces resilience to trauma but also aids in coping with future adversity won the 2016 Grawemeyer Award for Psychology

Steven Maier showed if test subjects had behavioral control over some element of an adverse event, they were less negatively impacted and also essentially “immunized” against some harmful effects of future bad events, even if those events were uncontrollable. Through laboratory research studies, he uncovered in animal subjects the neural mechanism that provides such resilience in the face of trauma.